unemployment held steady at 7.8%. and for those of you who are keeping track at home, the u.s. economy added 1.84 million jobs for 2012. so, if we take a look at the big board, well, that's maybe not what we all expected to see, we're in the red, but only by a wee bit, christine romans is here with me today and analyzing whether we should have an up or down arrow. >> that's what you should see, because the job market is treading water and it basically in december looked just like november, at the end of the year you saw just enough job creation, ashleigh, to absorb new workers into the workforce but not meaningfully lower the unemployment rate. it's treading water overall is how i would describe it. >> treading water and yet when you break down the sectors and that's really important to do, you can explain that later in the program, there's growth in each. >> there's growth coming in. health care 45,000 jobs created in health care, i've seen that

for more than a year, one after another in health care. some are good-paying jobs, some jobs are not and they're not ladder jobs in health care, but you are seeing health care growth there. food services and drinking places apparently people were going out to dinner and celebrating in december, celebrating maybe the coming end of the world, because of the mayan calendar, but you saw people adding jobs in those areas. >> don't we normally see it in december? it's the holiday season. >> we do and sometimes they go away in the beginning part of the year. manufacturing you want to see jobs in areas with better pay, manufacturing and construction because of hurricane sandy, construction jobs grew as well. >> wait a minute, the construction for hurricane sandy had already begun even though the aid package has to be voted on as we speak? >> we've been talking to people who had a little bit of savings and were able to get work started because they knew they wanted to secure work crews and they wanted to prevent mold, so, yeah, you had people starting to get that work done. >> it's that kind of effect took hold in december, that package of aid today, it's only $9

billion but ultimately it will end up being $60 billion that should have an effect on manufacturing as well. >> for construction, you would hope so. >> construction. >> you would hope it would offset the loss of small businesses that would have to close because of all the time, so it starts to -- it can be a push and pull in terms of the sandy effect for sure. >> and just because i made the nice mistake and said manufacturing, we showed some good pictures of manufacturing. >> manufacturing is interesting, too, the white house likes to say you are seeing recovery in manufacturing and they are trying their hardest to make sure it takes hold. you hear the anecdotal evidence of companies starting to bring home jobs from china and asia but we had a lot of jobs that left. on the margin, time will tell if it's a real trend. >> why do i always hear, that's critical, we really need to focus on manufacturing, thokes are the numbers that matter when i also hear, housing, now, that's important. >> housing and manufacturing are both important because those are jobs where you are putting people with higher-than-average wages to work and each of the jobs has a knockdown effect.

>> trickle effect. >> that's right, those are jobs with good economic activity attached to them quite frankly. you've heard how we're a service-related economy and how we don't have to make things in america, now peop are hmm, maybe we do need to work and build things in america because those are good-paying jobs. >> hit me up with the long-term unemployment because those are the numbers we don't see. >> you have a stubbornly high number there, 4.8 million people out of work. the new congress and this president have a very big job ahead of them in terms of getting those people, those statistics, back into the labor market because the longer you're out of the market even ben bernanke, the fed chief, has said the longer you're away the harder it is to get back in, and you're very -- you're not very like lip at getting back in at the old wages and it really sets you back financially, it sets your family back financially, you've got to figure out how to get opportunities for those people. >> i'll ask dan lothian traveling with the president about that one. coming up.

trend's your friend. you got the chart for the year? >> i want to show you the last six months in particular. remember the past spring and summer we were so worried, i was pulling my hair out of a potential double dip recession, five months to keep the unemployment from not getting much higher but not going lower. it's going in the right direction. >> thank you for that awesome information. happy weekend for you, my friend. with the new congress in place and more of the financial battles ahead you just know that the white house is taking a very close look at these latest jobs numbers, let's get straight to our white house correspondent dan lothian, i promised to take you to hawaii to meet up with dan lothian, who is not on vacation even though the president is. >> reporter: i am not. >> obviously the first question -- you are not, my friend, i'm sorry. we were dangling hawaii in front of you. has the white house put out public reaction or have you got private reaction to these numbers? >> reporter: they have. and it essentially mirrors what we've been hearing for the last year that there's a little bit of good news but there's still a

lot of work to be done, alan krueger, the chairman of the president's council of economic advisers saying in a statement, quote, while more work remains to be done, today's employment report provides further evidence that the u.s. me is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the great depression. he also points out that there's a need here to continue the president's policies. but also talked about the fact that now that you have resolution to the fiscal cliff matter, that it provides now some certainty in the marketplace. and then also this word of caution that we always hear from the white house every time these monthly numbers come out that they're often revised, either up or down, that you should not read too much into one month's numbers. nonetheless, republicans hitting back today. the rnc saying that, yes, there's good news here, but that unemployment still remains very high and that this is not really a time to celebrate when you've had so many months of near 8% unemployment, ashleigh. >> and, you know, i was just talking with christine romans

about the long-term unemployed. i just want to get a few more stats out there. five years ago, dan, we had 2.5 million people who were long-term unemployed, but now it's a much larger number, it's 3.3 million people. i'm sure that's not lost on the white house. i don't know if they speak separately about the jobs issue and the long-term unemployment issue, but is there any kind of reaction or look ahead as to how they'll try to fix that problem along with the current problem of unemployment? >> reporter: right. and that is -- that is a big issue for the white house. and you hear the president every time when he comments about the unemployment picture and those who have been out of work for quite some time, that he won't rest until everyone who wants to work is able to find a job. and the solution that they believe will help the problem is to provide some stability or certainty out there in marketplace so that small businesses, which they believe are the engine -- engine,

rather, for economic recovery, will start spending money again, will start hiring. and i think that's where the focus is, if you can get small businesses to get back into the game, if you will, start hiring, and also get big companies out there, who have been sitting on a lot of cash, they wanted to do some research and development, wanted to do some expansion, but because there's been uncertainty, they have not gone out and started hiring. and those are the areas that the white house believes, if they can provide the climate, if you will, a positive climate, then hiring will begin. >> so, i can't let you go before i ask you about some of the potential new cabinet members that are being bandied about, because some people are leaving their jobs and they are big, important jobs that need to be filled. what do you hear? >> reporter: you're right. and the president is on vacation, playing golf, going out with the first daughters, but he's also mulling over who will fill various positions. these are all critical, very important positions, and we're hearing from sources that he could startle rolling out some of those names as early as next

week. obviously defense department is one that we're watching very closely. chuck hagel, had under fire even though he's not been formally nominated for this position has been under fire for comments that he has said in the past about a gay individual, about israel, he still remains the top of the list, we're told, for that position. michelle flournoy, an undersecretary there also on the short list. treasury, you know, kenneth chenault, the ceo of american express, has been whispered about as a possibility there. yesterday, though, i spoke to a spokesman at american express who told me that kenneth chenault plans to continue at american express. so, you can essentially scratch him off the list. jack lew who is the current chief of staff at the white house, is on the list for that job. and then finally the cia, john brennan, the president's adviser for homeland security, is on the short list, michael morell who is the acting director of the

cia also on the list. so, the president has some important key positions to fill, and, again, we expect that that could start rolling out as early as next week, ashleigh. >> okay, dan. i hope you get some sunshine while you're there at least a little bit. dan lothian live for us. >> reporter: i hope so, too. >> in hawaii. it's a good assignment, you got to admit. i want to take everybody to the big board, this is cold new york, and the dow is reading up a wee bit perhaps sense christine romans' report the dow reacted nicely, but we're at least out of negative territory albeit by just a fraction. i'll take you live to the new york stock exchange a little later on in this hour. so, we've been hearing all along that former arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords had made plans to visit newtown, connecticut, today. we're not exactly sure who she's meeting with or why, but we certainly have the idea that she knows a thing or two about the crisis that they faced in that town. earlier this week she and her husband mark kelly met with new york city mayor michael

bloomberg to discuss gun control. and you'll remember that she resigned from congress last year so that she could focus on her recovery after being shot in the head during an event with voters two years ago. a 15-year-old pakistani girl shot in the head by the taliban has now left a british hospital. the taliban had targeted malala because of her crusade to educate girls. she had received frequent death threats because of her work, and malala will continue her rehab in the uk before more reconstructive surgery next month. and a big setback to report for venezuelan president hugo chavez. a top aide said a severe lung infection has led to res ppiraty failure. he's in a cuban hospital following his latest cancer surgery and he's supposed to be taking the oath of office for a new six-year term in just a few days, but you'll have to stay tuned for what happens there. director oliver stone is best known for his movies but

he's also an open supportero chavez and he made a film on the venezuelan president and his influence on the country and he'll be joining sue van malveaux here at cnn noon eastern today to talk about his relationship with the venezuelan president, only on cnn and it's coming at you in 50 minutes. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. tyeah, its the galaxy note ii.re great. you can do two things at the same time. you can watch videos and text. hah, puppies. or you could watch the earnings report and take notes, like we're supposed to. or you can make it look like me and paul

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try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. the year is out, and as we said earlier, 155,000 jobs were added in december with the unemployment rate at 7.8%, but will 2013 bring any better numbers? our senior managing partner -- our senior partner and managing director of the boston consultant job is live with me now from chicago. we like to tap you because i

know that you've advised the president before on how to bring jobs back home here to america, jobs that have been expatriated, so let me ask you this. since president obama took office in '08, the jobs numbers have increasingly -- you know, they've improved. but how do we know that we can expect that trend to continue in 2013, or do we just not know? >> absolutely. well, we don't know. it's really dependent on a couple things. they primarily relate to the fiscal cliff, the sequestration and a lot of the other activities. but if you want to go back and say what was the trend that the u.s. had before all this happened, we saw in the third quarter very strong economic growth, 3.1% had is some of the fastest in the world fortunately developed countries. we saw housing prices and housing starts and sales of homes go up often by about 10% and we've seen other factors that make the economy stronger, including the increase in the stock market, so we had a good run in the third quarter. we lost a little bit of momentum because of the uncertainty with

the fiscal cliff. if we start hitting the debt ceiling and the other issues, we're going to have some problems. >> i expected that uncertainty because there was a lot of talk about that having really drastic effect on the jobs numbers. but it didn't. and i'm trying to figure out if that's an offset because of the holidays and all the seasonal hiring, you just heard christine romans reporting that health care's up and food services and drinking places and construction. >> right. >> but is that just -- was that a blip? >> well, i think it's generally good news, right? and there's more good news in the report that i haven't heard talked about much. we saw wages rise by 0.3% month to month which is a good thing, that's above what we think inflation should be and we've also seen the amount of hours worked from 34.4 to 34.5 hours per week and that means we're seeing people getting paid more and working more hours and that's a very helpful sign, so there are some good things that are happening. we still have to worry about the other things that christine talked about like small businesses not hiring as much and maybe even laying off.

and companies not wanting to spend money because of capital constraints. these are all issues that could be a problem, and as we still face a set of potential serious problems with the debt ceiling and the sequestration, we're not out of the woods. fortunately the economy seems to want to do some good things and that's a helpful thing for us. >> and since you brought that up, those new fiscal cliffs that we have to argue about, look, everybody says there's no indication that our brand-new fancy congress is going to be any different than our once brand-new now old fancy congress, so there will be more uncertainty, it's guaranteed, isn't it? and isn't that something we have to worry about when it comes to employers who just can't stand not knowing? >> right. this is why congress needs to act relatively quickly rather than drag this thing out. if employers know what the outcomes are, they're going to make good decisions and they'll probably start hiring, but if they're not sure what's going to happen, they're going to wait.

so, what we need to do is for congress not to wait until the last minute each time and not to threaten and do the other things but to work together for the benefit of our country. had is what they're supposed to be doing. >> do you have any ideas how to do it, hal? got any good ideas? >> i don't know. i don't know. i'm hoping with maybe some of the new people in congress we can see some changes. but it's a difficult thing, but this is something that we have to do. we are in essence -- we are basically in control of our own destiny and what we need to do is have congress take these actions, you know, i liken this sometimes to the euro crisis that's in europe, but europe really isn't in control of what happens. it's very difficult for them to take actions. in theory, we could take actions in the house, in the senate and with the president and have all this solved in the next few hours. but -- and they were very close to an agreement. >> yeah, let me ask you about this. obviously with the debt ceiling, the big problem right in front of us, conservatives will say, look, we need to leverage that, because we can't keep the

democrats from spending unless we have a really, really powerful tool and the debt ceiling's a very powerful tool. on the other hand, democrats are saying, are you kidding me? that's not the kind of tool you should be using. and we actually do hear conservatives and business leaders saying the same thing as democrats it seems. don't be using that. it's killing us. i'd love to get your perspective on that. >> it's a very dangerous tool. it's one that i hope people only threaten to never use. because if we stop paying our bills, that will have as a country, that will have a massive impact on our economy. and it basically will remove what is the full faith and credit of the united states. this is something that we have as an asset we are basically the world's reserve currency and this can all change if all of a sudden we stop paying our bills. so, you know, it is a very dangerous weapon. and, you know, in many ways you can call it the nuclear option. >> the nuclear option. well, let's end on the nuclear option. happy new year to you, hal. nice to see you. >> happy new year. >> hal joining us from chicago.

always good to talk to you. if you want more details, by the way, of what went on, all the information in today's jobs report, we have it for you, but it would be a six-hour show to read it. you can go to cnnmoan.com and read it for yourself. dad. listen, we're gonna go broke unless we figure out a way to divvy up this shared data plan...fairly. so, um, whoever's fathered the most children, gets the most data. let's just do it by hair. body hair? most dental work. what? [ phones buzzing and beeping ] stop downloading, and stop liking everything. it should be by who has the least amount of cartilage in their left knee. [ mom ] i just want to take a bath.

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the economy picked up 155,000 jobs pretty much on par with what was expected, as for the response on wall street, let's check in with alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. so, we saw -- i went in to a segment with christine romans and we were a little in the red and when we came out of the segment with christine romans, we were a little in the black. how's it going now? has it changed since then? >> it really hasn't changed much, and, you know, the reaction from wall street is just kind of ehh, one analyst characterized this jobs report

as lackluster. another one says it's okay. the thing is just not a lot has changed and here's one example for you. you look at how many jobs were added in total for the year, for 2012, that was 1.8 million, the same number of jobs added in 2011. so, what you see, ashleigh, is this job market that's really treading water, not really moving forward much. also you look at any changes that may be happening between november and december to the december jobs report, the unemployment rate is unchanged. total number of people unemployed, that didn't change. the number of long-term unemployed, that didn't change. so, that kind of status quo, that's kind of what's playing out in the markets, you know, it's a jobs market that's not getting any worse, it's just not gaining any real momentum. you looking for a little bit of optimism? what you can do is you can check out this, the average hourly earnings. it was up more than 2% in 2012. and this is good, ashleigh, because it's usually a precurlser before companies hire, because what happens is companies are maxing out the number of hours that each

employee is working, too much work for too few people and demand is there and possibly companies need more people to do that work. so, yes, we saw that go up 2.1%, not a huge move, but up nonetheless, ashleigh? >> so, this isn't a very long week it seems. >> it has been. >> we started the week with a fiscal -- i know, right? what a difference three days can make. we started the week with the fiscal cliff deal and people were popping champagne corks for a whole different reason and the markets went bananas and all of a sudden they didn't. is it that short-lived? >> it very well could be, because i mean, what wall street sees is what's coming down the pike. we're going to get hit other sort of cliffs, you know, on spending cuts and the debt ceiling, so that's what's worrying the market here. but if you look at how the jobs market held up in december, this is actually good, because you see the numbers. and one analyst tells me, they've pretty much held up through the fiscal cliff craziness, they could have taken a dive and they didn't, although today's report does show

stagnation as far as retail jobs go, because retailers usually a sprite spot in december. we did see the number of jobs in retail fall, and that could be a reflection of what the fiscal cliff did to consumer confidence. you know, but when you look at the greater -- the broader market, there's no question, actually, that washington got in the way in bigger gains for december in the market and this week as well. and even though we've had an impressive two-day rally at the beginning of the week and it is all about the looming fights in congress over the spending cuts and the debt ceiling, they'll make for a couple volatile months for the market in january and february, ashleigh. >> okay, alison, thanks very much. have a good weekend. >> you, too.

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if you have not gone in for the flu shot yet, you might want to step on it. because it turns out the cdc's warning about a bad flu season was spot on. with an early spike in flu cases right across the country, too. the southern states are apparently having the worst go at this. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us from one of the southern states in atlanta. i hope you are feeling okay to do the segment. >> i can't even tell you how many people who i know who were sick with flu or flu-like illness. >> including me. >> and you're up there. >> and i'm up here and i didn't get the flu shot and i don't get it every year. >> ashleigh, did i teach you nothing? >> do you know what, you're brilliant and i'm busy. >> you're very sweet. next year i'm flying up there. >> just how bad is it? is it any different, i always say it's so bad this year, i feel like i say the same story every year. is it something different? is the strain different?

>> no, what is weird or a little different is it started early. when you look at the past ten years, there were only two, maybe three seasons where we saw this much flu this early and it kept growing and growing. so, the cdc just a couple of hours ago came out with new numbers i'll share with you, ashleigh, if you look at last week, there were 29 states that had high levels of flu. the week before there were 16 states. so, you can see that's a big -- that's a big jump in one week. >> yeah. wow. that's incredible. so, is this something that's going to be exponential or will it abate after last week and maybe this week? >> you know, it hasn't peaked yet, so it's been going up, up, up, up, up and hopefully it will go down soon but we don't know when it will go down, but it's shaping up overall to be a moderate to severe season. at some point the numbers will go down, so the peak -- the flu is a bell-shaped curve and it goes like this, so it peaked early this year. it's going to peak early this year. hopefully it will get better soon. >> so, once you enter into the flu season even, you know, if you've had to take a few days off work, can you still get --

this is obviously a question that is personal, can you still get a flu shot? >> you can still get a flu shot because there is still lots of flu out there, as i said, it hasn't peaked yet. it's still getting worse as far as we know, so go out there and get that flu shot. it won't hurt you and it works. not all the time. >> not 100% of the time. and you're promising me it's not weird than normal. i won't have something differently happen. >> in 2009 we had h1n1, the swine flu, that was weird and different. there's nothing different this year, there's just a lot of it early on. >> can i ask a very stupid question. >> please. >> honestly, this is going to sound crazy, how do you know when you have a bad cold or when you have the flu? is a there is a huge difference between them? >> there is a huge difference, if you have a fever and chills and body aches and what doctors call malaise which just means you just feel cruddy and can't get out of bed, there's a good chance that's the flu. if you just have a headache and

stuffy nose and runny nose and a cough and a sore throat, that might just be a cold. the fever, the aches, the chills, that's what tells you it could be the flu. >> now, i'm not actually sure if i had the flu. because i had two of those really awful, yucky times where i had a lot of malaise, but i didn't have a fever. >> you don't have to have the fever, but most people do. >> i'm expecting my flu shot in the next couple days. >> i'll come on up. >> elizabeth, phenomenal information on the web. she's got this great book "empowered patients "and a lot of her information is available at cnn.com/empoweredpatients and i encourage you to head on over to the site and take a peek. k h! humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our optional better car replacement. if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer.

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there is a -- how do i put this -- very troubling rape case. a criminal rape case that is unfolding in the small community, a football community, of steubenville, ohio. it involves a 16-year-old girl and two 16-year-old boys. boys who have been charged as juveniles after allegedly raping the girl possibly while she was drunk and unconscious. they are set to go on trial on february3th. and what sets this apart from most other criminal rape cases, and there are so many across the country, is perhaps the age of all those who have been brought

into this story and the social media aspect of it. the allegations are fast and furious. that not only did this allegedly happen, that this girl was so drunk she was passed out when allegedly violated, but that also people laughed and watched, took pictures, posted pictures, shared the pictures, and laughed about the pictures. and allegedly that this person didn't even find out about the fact that she was in the center of this story until she saw the pictures and reports of the pictures. again, the allegations are vast. the evidence is relatively secret at this point, but one thing we can tell you, it's a case in which the state attorney's general's office has become involved and we're happy to be joined now by ohio attorney general mike dewine who is joining us from columbus, ohio. thank you so much, mr. attorney general, for joining me on this very disturbing story. first if you could explain to our viewers, why am i talking to

you about this case and not the local prosecutors who should be involved in this case? >> well, that's a good question. we get involved when we are requested to become involved in a case by the local authorities. sometimes they do not have the resources to handle the case. but in many cases it's simply a situation where there's a conflict. as you pointed out, steubenville is a relatively small community, tight-knit community. a lot of people know other people. and so the prosecuting attorney felt that there was a conflict. she did not feel that she should proceed with the case, and asked us to come in and work on the case. we are also involved and have been asked by the steubenville police department to become involved in the investigation. so, we started in august being involved in the investigation as well as the prosecution. >> and may i just push a little further on that and say, i know you had a request to become involved, but did you need to become involved? i understand how things often

work in a small town, everybody knows everybody. and that can create a conflict of interest. was there a serious conflict of interest in the authorities and the leadership of the football team and, say, the teachers or the schools? was there any conflict of interest among those people in which you had to step in and perhaps may have to investigate as a result? >> well, i'm confident that the prosecuting attorney would have done a fine job. i think she made the decision because i think she has a member of her family that goes to this school. she made the decision that the appearance of impropriety or the appearance of a conflict, she did not want to have that, and i respect that opinion. what we do is we become involved if we're requested to do that. as far as a conflict with people in the school, i'm not sure that's relevant. they're not the ones who are doing the investigation. they're not the ones who are doing the prosecution. we are doing both. and i think -- i hope people believe that we bring an impartiality to it.

our goal as prosecutors is not just to get convictions. our goal frankly and the ethical job of a prosecutor is to seek justice and find out what happened and to seek the truth, and that's what we're trying to do. >> and i think that is what everybody who is watching our program right now agrees with you, that everyone wants justice in this for everyone involved. there are people who are accused and are not guilty until proven so in a court of law in this case, and there is an alleged victim who if proven to be a victim has a destroyed life. so, with that in mind, i kind of want to repeat that question somewhat. are you going to be investigating further whether there was any kind of effort to either cover up or interfere with an investigation or interfere with a prosecution? will you be looking in to that? >> well, that's a very good question. our investigation -- the only thing i can tell you is our investigation is continuing. it is active. it is ongoing. and we will let everyone know if

there's any additional charges, you know, if the principal people have been charged, it will be up to the judge to determine in a court of law next month whether the evidence is there or not. we obviously would not have brought the charge unless we thought it was, but that's up to the judge. and as far as any other investigation, we are still investigating some other things connected with this case, and that's about all i can tell you at this point. >> so, what you're saying, mr. attorney general, there is a potential that there are other people being investigated as ancillaries to the initial part of the crime, those who may have other roles not necessarily on that night of august 11th, is that what you're telling me? >> well, i can tell you that the investigation's not over. it is active. our experienced bci agents are actively involved in the case, and that's about all i can tell you. but, you know, if there -- if the case was over with, we would tell you it's over. we would tell you we're done, but we're not. and that's what we're telling

the public. and we also are asking the public, if they have any information -- i know there's a lot of rumors going around, jefferson county and steubenville, if anybody's got any information, we would love to have it. and we would invite them to call our bci office or call the attorney general's office. >> i know from the police chief, this has been a real challenge, just getting witnesses to come forward, even witnesses who allegedly were there, just to get them to come forward. also with that in mind, and i'm asking you about three different things right now, the alleged crime itself and the two people who are charged, also those who may or may not have interfered with the prosecution or an investigation, which was what i was trying to get out of you and i'm not sure i got anywhere there, and also those who may have shared those images. they may have been nowhere near these alleged crime scenes, but they may have done something very, very illegal and they may be very, very young and their lives are at stake as well. my question to you is, will you be looking to prosecute any people who shared those images on social media?

because effectively by law they would be child -- they would be sharing child pornography and they could be determined by some states' laws as child sex offenders and registered for life. >> again, i'm not going to go there. i'm going to tell you that we're still investigating. there's a lot of different aspects to this case, as you pointed out, that it goes beyond the actual act or acts that were committed or we believe the evidence will show was committed. there's other aspects to this. i think, frankly, the most disgusting thing about this is that we have a victim, and whenever you have a rape victim, it's very sad, it's very tough. heart goes out to the victim. in this case you have a victim who is really through no fault of her own being revicty mit tty the social media as images go up. i can just imagine how i would feel if i was the parent or parents of this girl.

my wife, fran, and i have eight children. i can imagine if this was my daughter and not only did our family have to go through the tragedy of the incident, but then having to see stuff up on the internet all the time and continuing and -- >> and also not just the -- >> that to me is what is really sad. >> also the attacks that have blamed her. there have been horrifying things said about her. >> well, just horrible and what was posted yesterday with that young man, you know, it's just disgusting. it's just terrible. it's horribly insensitive, that's the nicest way you can describe it, just imagine your family having to watch that if you're the victim. >> i can't. mr. attorney general, i do hope that we can check in with you shortly for any kind of updates, as you said, the investigation continues on many different prongs of this case and perhaps you'll have an update with us shortly. thanks for being with us today. i appreciate it. >> thank you very much. we'll also have more legal

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so, before the break we were bringing you the story of an extraordinary rape case that's unfolding in steubenville, ohio, two 16-year-olds charged, and i want to say that we said that malik richmond, we said his name is malik richardson, in fact,

cnn wants to correct any of the reporting that we've been doing on this case. it's not richardson. his name is malik richmond, one of the 16-year-olds who is charged and also along with him the 16-year-old trent mays, both charged with the alleged rape of an underaged girl. their trial is set to get under way on the 13th of next movez and defense attorney joey jackson joins us now. first question to you, whenever you have a rape case, evidence is critical and evidence is difficult in most cases. in this particular case physical evidence is next to impossible because the young alleged victim did not even know about this until postings and reports came out. thus, it was days before she told her parents and her parents reported it. so, physical evidence, rape kits, et cetera, nonexistent. >> do you know what, ashleigh, it makes it more difficult to move forward in a case like this when you don't have the physical evidence. obviously if you have physical evidence, then, of course, the prosecution can use that to its

advantage to secure a prosecution. however, even in the absence of that, we now know because there was a probably an cause hearing to determine whether the children should be held that there are state's witnesses that will come forward that will say they were around, near, or next to the parties when these acts were occurring. they've already given testial evidence as to the violation of the girl. in addition to that we also know that there are other materials, right? there are photographs and these type things which will go to corroborate the testimony. so, even in the absence of physical evidence, ashleigh, you can still secure a conviction in a case like this if you have other supporting types of information. >> malik richmond's attorney was on cnn on "starting point" this morning and confirmed to brooke baldwin during an interview that that was, in fact, the client in the photo that show the two 16-year-olds holding what appeared to be an extraordinarily unconscious young woman clad in shorts and a t-shirt by her wrists and ankles, he confirmed, in fact,

that it was him in the photograph. what he will not confirm is that the photograph is what everyone thinks it is. the photograph of a very drunk girl that doesn't know those there. a picture can be very misrepresentative. >> it could. because what they're arguing, they, being the defense, the picture's being taken out of context, right? in any rape case what you are examining is any critical issue, that's the issue of consent. did the other party consent. when did the rape occur, and at what point in terms of it occurring was she conscious, was she unconscious, was she under the influence, was she not in the influence, was the photo representing playful behavior, was it representing behavior where they were taking advantage of her, all those types of things are things that the defense will be arguing in the case. >> speaking of the defense can they also say that those state's witnesses that are right now so critical in this case, they may have been offered immunity and thus are not reliable? >> 100%. what you are going to see is an attack on witnesses, look, if

you're offered immunity, right, that makes you not reliable, because you are a cooperating witness, you are cooperating because you are involved yourself, right? and you will say whatever you want to in order to secure that immunity, so we'll see that as the case falls out, when it begins february 13th. >> do you know what, that's the criminal case, i don't even have time to start on the civil actions that could follow on this, the drinking at homes, et cetera, the allegations, oh, lord. >> they are 16, how did they get access to the alcohol. all of that is critical. >> you'll have to come back. >> love to. >> so many disturbing things. mike dewine who we spoke with earlier will not say at this point also if anyone else is going to be charged in this case, but you did hear him say this investigation is not over. [ loud party sounds ]

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so house leaders promised up and then minutes ago signed off on a critical package of relief for the victims of superstorm sandy. it is the first phase, and it will provide more than $9 billion in emergency aid. without it, fema says that its flood insurance program would have gone broke within days. congressman charlie rangel represents new york's district. he hoof it had from voting and is live from capitol hill. congressman, thanks very much. highlight of the vote, lowlight of the vote? go ahead. >> well, i think it's been a

good day for the congress and for the country. it reinforces the concept that we've had since the beginning of this nation, that if any part of our country is affected by a disaster, that they can and should expect the rest of the country to come to the rescue. so we got off track with this darn thing for communications reasons. i don't know why. it caused a lot of pain and a lot of hopelessness for the people that find themselves without homes and without jobs. we're back on the right track. as soon as we get back we expect on the suspension calendar that the $51 billion we were look being forward to in the first place will be restored. it's my present understanding that it will be in two parts, $18 billion package that would be for the immediate need, and a $33 billion package that will be

voted on separately since most of that money would be what we call mitigation. that is to deal with infrastructure problems so if god forbid this happens again, we will be able to control the damage and not destroy the homes. >> congressman, the initial numbers i look at in terms of this vote passing are 354-67. we don't often see numbers like that anymore in congress, which is unfortunate. however, 67 members decided that $9 billion in this aid package was not appropriate. why? >> i have no idea. you know, when you ask why was the bill pulled in the first place, why didn't we take care of this earlier in the week, why does it take so long for us to respond, and then throw in the question of the fiscal cliff and the problems that the republican leadership had and why some of the votes even for his

speakership, people would just know that they wanted to display some feelings of anxiety that they had about his leadership. so there's no political way to define why people did not immediately come forward and say that when americans are in trouble, the congress is there to help them. i would think that they would find it very, very difficult to explain their vote in a way that the average american could really understand it. >> i'm told that all 67 of those votes we're talking about were republican votes. did the speaker have anything to say about that? did those members have anything to say about the no vote, and do you expect that 67 people will be joined by a whole lot more no votes come the next $18 billion or $33 billion versions or phases of this relief package? >> painfully, that doesn't surprise me, but that's one of

the things that we want to avoid. if we had to have votes against it, i would have hoped they would be democratic and republican votes. when people belong to one party, one ideology and they can say that their party politics is above patriotism, that they'd rather vote in terms of their ideology rather than to help fellow americans that are in trouble, that's a sad day. >> i live in a town that got hit by this storm, and one of my neighbors has a santa hanging off the broken part of where their porch used to be. so i know that this is an emotional issue and that a the lot of people want to talk about the damage and that they need this help. then i see things that this bill had in it that really i found sort of obnoxious. there's pork in this bill. $150 million for fisheries in alaska. why would that put that into a relief bill, $150 million for fisheries in alaska. this is a superstorm sandy

relief bill. >> i wish people would ask the question rather than just getting angry. alaska sometime in past had a serious catastrophe that caused the small fishermen to lose a whole lot of income because of that. they never were -- even though they had fema and everyone else trying to help them. we did have fishermen that lost a lot of jobs, a lot of income as a result of this storm. all of this stuff has been analyzed. why they would put alaska on it, except they had a previous claim, i don't know. if they had put long island, connecticut, and new jersey on it and asked the question why, there is an answer why. all of this has been scrutinized. you know, everyone knows we have to cut back in spending, but they shouldn't just rush to judgment if they see something they don't understand. let me make it abundantly clear

to you. none of you in the us in the af communities do we want doggone pork in this, because it doesn't just make it difficult to discuss a tragic situation, bought we hope that this vehicle for other parts of our country that may come up, that no one thinks about contaminating it with pork. >> yeah. congressman, good to talk to you. congratulations on the new group you're working with, and my best to you that it's going to be a good session and it will have some kind of -- well, less paralysis in 2013. best of the new year to you. >> it has it to get better. >> it does. thanks for being with us. >> thank you.